The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Oct. 20, 2012

After watching two of the first three days of the state 5A soccer tournament in Coeur d’Alene, maybe the idea that anybody on any given day applies not only to football, but also the game of soccer.

With three local teams in the hunt for the state championship — all three will play for one a little later today as the Post Falls boys and girls, as well as the Lake City girls will kick it off — ironically enough, with both at Coeur d’Alene High.

COMING INTO this week, there probably weren’t too many folks that thought an All-North Idaho final would take place in the girls tournament — between Lake City and Post Falls today at 2 p.m.

Lake City, which had to play its way into the tournament, has had to win in thrilling fashion, with a double overtime goal against Highland on Thursday and a victory by way of a 3-2 advantage in a penalty kick shootout against Eagle.

Post Falls went through the same thing in its state opener, beating Boise on penalty kicks before keeping Eagle scoreless to advance to the title game.

The Trojan boys knocked off Borah and Skyline on the way to their first appearance in the state title game — today at 11 a.m.

For the first time in five years, the 5A tournaments are in Kootenai County. If you’re a soccer fan, you don’t want to miss how things conclude later today at Coeur d’Alene.

WHEN IT came to breaking a three-way tie for the NFC West lead in San Francisco between the 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night, what might be the best team in the league showed up to play.

While Seattle’s defense showed up in the first half, the old habits of dropping passes kept the Seahawks from a win.

It might have been enough to get teased with their late game heroics on Sunday when they upset New England, but how they did in the previous game didn’t get the Seahawks anywhere on Thursday night.

And thanks to losses at Arizona and St. Louis, they are also 0-3 on the road within their division.

Seattle gets all three at home in the final month of the season, but chances are, if they don’t fix their offensive woes soon, they’ll be watching a few of them later this winter.

But the upsets aren’t just within the NFC West, which was once a laughingstock for its subpar teams — likely hitting its highest point when the Seahawks qualified for the playoffs at 7-9 two years ago.

It was only a matter of time before the losses turned around and the winning was going to begin once again.

On any given day, anyone can win — right?

Hopefully that day is pretty soon.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com.